Three children ethnic-Turkmen children arrived in Tal Afar district after they were freed from Islamic State (IS) captivity in Syria.
The three children who had been held captive since 2014 were reunited with their families in their hometown Talafar in western Ninewa late on Monday, July 15, 2019.
The Ninawa Operations Command of the Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMF) in, a statement, said they supervised the return of the kidnapped children to their homes in Talafar.
The freed children were captured by IS fighters after they overran their town in 2014 and were later transported to Syria.
The PMF statement indicated that the children were aged 6 to 10, and that one of them sustained injuries.
On March 23rd, The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) declared the defeat of IS in Syria following five years of fighting in coordination with coalition forces.
The Turkmen component, like other minority groups in Iraq, has been subjected to atrocities, including mass killings and kidnappings by IS fighters. resulting in the loss of thousands of children in Tal Afar, including women and children, whose fate remains unknown.
Over 1,000 people from the Turkmen minority including women and children were kidnapped by IS. The fate of many of them remains unknown.
Talafar, 70 km from west of Ninewa province, is inhabited by a mixed make-up of Arabs and Shiite Turkmen. The town was retaken from IS in August 2017.
